Erin Brenneman
James Lindsay, only insistence
Fredericton: icehouse poetry, Goose Lane Editions, 2023. $19.95.
“There is no such thing as repetition. Only Insistence.” This is how James Lindsay’s most recent poetry collection begins, with a quotation from American novelist and poet Gertrude Stein. And this book is, at its core, exactly as its title suggests: an insistence.
Lindsay’s third collection is comprised of seven poems, two of which appeared prior to its publication as individual chapbooks (The Lake, published by knife | fork | book in 2022, and Labour Day, published by above/ground press in 2021). In it, Lindsay builds on his work in Our Inland Sea (Wolsak & Wynn, 2015) and Double Self-Portrait (Wolsak & Wynn, 2020) as he continues his avant-garde approach to style while covering a vast array of subjects. They range from the profoundness of familial bonds—the speaker’s inability to define his relationship with his father in “The Lake,” and the realignment of his world following the birth of his son, as shown through brief vignettes in space and time in “Labour Day”—to the surreal nature of life during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as evident in the stark, near-sterile imagery of the collection’s titular poem. These images remained before my eyes long after I turned the page, and longer still as I closed the book and turned to a world that seems to have forgotten those many months spent locked away, hiding from sickness:
Streets were beaches in early April
Bright and bleached and barren…
And eye contact was a flock of birds
And the way they distance themselves
From one another when two groups
Collide without contact
Like flowers in a field
Refusing to acknowledge each other
Each of the seven poems varies in form as words collect into uniform lines and disperse once more into staggered and isolated groups, building and breaking and re-forming. “Amongst the Narcissuses” is a great example of this:
like when the clerk
gave me my change
and for the briefest
of moments held my hand
between their opaque latex
gloves
What a moment
to immediately move on from
The form guides the reader, encouraging them to pick up pace or slow with emphasis, and ultimately, it invites the reader to consider each letter and space as it contributes to the overall reading experience—a reminder that each detail plays a vital role in the creation of something far bigger than itself.
Throughout the collection, words and phrases frequently reappear between lines and poems—rabbits and dancing and “the blue of the lake”—gaining momentum so that by its end, each line has become an insistence, each word and every sound a resounding declaration that it deserves to be there, in its place, exactly as it is. In this, Lindsay shows incredibly acute attention to sound and rhythm—its construction and finished effect—and a dedication to language itself. The collection appears as a tribute to the repetitions in our lives that insist on capturing and retaining our attention even as they shift and re-form, often forcing us to do the same. More than that, Lindsay’s poetry serves as a reminder that only at our own insistence can we continue forward in the face of great change and uncertainty. Just as Lindsay’s writing tests the boundaries of style and form, it serves as an encouragement for us to do the same, to consider our own preconceptions in a new light, challenge and break them down so that we might grow beyond their bounds. There is something to be taken from this thoughtful collection as we all attempt to navigate a world that looks at once intimately familiar and entirely alien, and it is for this reason that I believe Only Insistence is worth the time and consideration of the avid poetry reader and casual passerby alike.
erin brenneman
is a writer and editor based in Mississauga, though she was born and raised just outside of Stratford, Ontario. She is in her fourth year of Sheridan College’s Honours Bachelor of Creative Writing & Publishing program and most recently had two of her poems published in B222’s inaugural issue. Although she primarily writes poetry and short fiction, Brenneman is constantly looking to sharpen her skills as a reader, writer, and editor by exposing herself to a wide variety of writing and stories. She currently works as the Editorial intern for The Ampersand Review.